FIFE ESTATE MANAGER AVOIDS JAIL AFTER ASSAULTING WIFE, LEAVING HER WITH SPINAL FRACTURE
The house manager at a Fife estate has been placed on curfew for a life-endangering assault on his wife, which left her with a spinal fracture.Neville Scott, 70, had been standing trial before a jury at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court in December but admitted an amended charge after his wife gave evidence by video link.
Scott, who lives in a cottage between the Fife hamlets of Wester Newburn and Drumeldrie in the East Neuk, pled guilty to assaulting his wife, under provocation, on April 29 last year at his home.
Scott pushed the woman, who has since left Scotland, onto a bed and restricted her breathing by gripping her throat.
She was left severely injured and her life had been put in danger, Scott accepted.
His plea of not guilty to a charge of threatening or abusive behaviour that night was accepted by the Crown.
Fiscal depute Ronnie Hay said of the victim: "It’s confirmed she had an acute lumbar spinal fracture." After his client pled guilty, Scott’s solicitor Martin McGuire said: "He is currently in full-time employment.
The locus is a cottage on a private estate.
Mr Scott is effectively the house manager for the estate." Sheriff Charles Lugton placed Scott under supervision and on an 8pm to 6am curfew for a year as a direct alternative to jail.
He said: "The incident involved excessive violence.
"Having said that, there are a number of factors that go against the imposition of custody in my view.
You are deemed to be a low risk of reoffending.
I can deal with this as a isolated incident, albeit a very serious one.
"Undoubtedly if it’s not going to be prison, there has to be a substantive punitive element here." Sheriff Lugton also made a non-harassment order preventing all contact, except written communication, for two years.
